MORE AND MORE HOMES HOOKED ON DIGITAL HELP
Millions already own an Amazon Echo or Google Home — and Apple may unveil its first device next month
SAN FRANCISCO When Christine Ha’s techie husband ordered the Amazon Echo, she says she rolled her eyes skeptically, expecting another device to begin collecting dust in a forgotten corner of their Houston home. Then he plugged in the Echo on the counter ledge between their kitchen and living room and Alexa spoke to Ha. “Life-changer,” Ha says. Ha, the vision-impaired contestant who won season three of the amateur cooking show MasterChef on FOX, routinely asks Alexa, the Echo’s digital voice assistant, for an assist with everyday tasks.
No screens to touch or buttons to push, Alexa can play jazz riffs or a Freakonomics podcast. She can convert one U.S. dollar into Japanese yen or 8 ounces into milliliters. When Ha’s making homemade ice cream, she can set a two-minute timer for the eggs she’s whisking while keeping a careful watch on the cream and milk heating on the stove. Ha’s Nest thermostat is now voice controlled by Alexa, too, as are the lights, even the coffee maker.
More and more people are getting a personal assistant, a digital homebody at their beck and call who can fetch the news, read them an audio book, order diapers or dinner or tell them who’s the prime minister of Lesotho.
Talking home appliances, sometimes called smart speakers, are beginning to catch on with America. This year, 35.6 million Americans will use a voice-activated assistant device at least once a month, according to research firm eMarketer. And that’s heating up the rivalry among the tech giants competing to get inside your home.
The front runner is the Amazon Echo, which is expected to command 70% of the U.S. market this year. Amazon is pushing its advantage, last week introducing the latest model, the Echo Show, which has a 7-inch touchscreen and a video camera that let you place video or voice calls over Wi-Fi.
Gaining ground is Google Home, the Amazon Echo rival introduced in October that is powered by Google Assistant. It’s expected to announce new features this week at Google’s annual I/O conference for software developers. Google Home, on track to grab about 24% of the market this year, trails Echo as a distant second.
Microsoft last week introduced its own smart speaker, the Cortana voice-assistant powered Invoke. Like the others, it can check traffic, set reminders and list the members of Wu Tang Clan. It can also make Skype calls.
Even Mark Zuckerberg is playing around with the technology. As his personal project for 2016, the Facebook CEO built his own digital assistant, so much like Tony Stark’s in Iron Man that he called it Jarvis. Among the tricks Jarvis can do: Recognize faces at Zuckerberg’s front door and buzz in guests.
The spark that could really set fire to consumer demand: Apple may unveil its first device next month at its annual conference for software developers WWDC. Apple employees have been testing a device at home for several months, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News.
Tove Stakkestad, 43, a blogger from Jupiter, Fla., says the Amazon Echo she received as a Christmas gift from her in-laws is a huge hit. It helps the kids with their homework (“If it means that I don’t have to fully comprehend Common Core math, then I am all for it,” she jokes) and helps her update shopping lists when she’s cooking (“It feels like an extra set of hands for an already multitasking mom”). Yet hers is a devoted Apple family and, should Apple come out with its own version, it will be hard to resist.
For years now, technology companies have been following consumers as they shift their attention and spending to smartphones and Internet-connected devices, investing big in digital helpers such as Google Assistant, Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Microsoft’s Cortana. But when it debuted in late 2014, the Amazon Echo was an entirely new way to get hands-free technology into people’s homes.
“People caught on to the real value. You have an assistant who can help you get things done, answer questions and give you information,” says Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey.
It took time for Google to punch back. Last May at the company’s annual I/O conference for software developers, Google CEO Sundar Pichai unveiled Google Assistant, hailing the digital assistant’s debut as a seminal moment for the company.
A lot is riding on Google Assistant’s shoulders. If consumers gravitate to a rival digital helper, say consult Siri on the iPhone or Alexa on Echo, Google could lose its place as the gateway to our digital lives. And that, in turn, could erode the near-universal appeal and money-making prowess of Google’s search engine and Web services such as Gmail and Maps.
About 10 million devices, mostly the Amazon Echo, were sold by the end of 2016, McQuivey estimates, and he expects some 15 million to 20 million more devices to be sold this year.
Cathy Herard, 45, a blogger from Maine, says Alexa answers most questions and commands, no matter who’s asking, especially her son who has autism. “Alexa has gotten really good at understanding his requests,” Herard said. But Alexa’s confused response — “I’m sorry, but I don’t understand the question” —gets annoying, she says.